"Why's the rubbish there, Dad?" Go ask Coca Cola

David Ritter says recycling cans and plastic bottles has proven to be effective and wildly popular, so why has it not been implemented across the country?

A few weeks ago, I was at a kids’ birthday picnic by one of Sydney Harbour's magical little bays.

The weather was fine, the company convivial, and the children were either haring about on the grass and sand, or dipping tentative toes in the few cold inches of gentle ocean shallows.

At one point I went for a walk along the beach with my four-year-old daughter Josie, to pick up driftwood and shells. We couldn't help but notice the plastic garbage that had washed up on the sand, including a heck of a lot of plastic bottles with their colourful screw top lids.

Prominent among the corporate logos fading on the litter was the famous red and white squiggle of the real thing itself, Coca-Cola.

The sight was an ugly jolt in our shared communion with the sky, sand and sea. "Why is the rubbish there, Dad?" my daughter asked.

Had we been on a beach in South Australia, it is less likely that my daughter and I would have come across an empty Coke bottle on the beach. Thirty six years ago the Croweaters wisely introduced a container deposit recycling scheme.

The arrangement couldn't be simpler: if you buy a bottled or canned drink in South Australia, you pay a 10c deposit - added to the cost of the drink - which is refunded when you return the empty.

The South Australian system is highly successful, resulting in the removal and recycling of around 80 per cent of cans and bottles.

The question has to be asked: container deposit recycling is proven to be effective and wildly popular, so why has it not been implemented across our nation? The troubling answer lies in the apparent influence of fizzy drink companies on the functioning of Australian democracy.

A coalition of big beverage corporations led by Coca-Cola Amatil, and now united under the banner of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, has waged a ferocious legal and political campaign to prevent the spread of container deposit recycling outside of South Australia.

In the end it was only intervention by the Federal Executive Council that has enabled the NT to continue with the scheme.

According to NSW Nationals MP John Williams, political donations also explain the impasse, because historically, "both Labor and Liberal governments have been supported by the Packaged Stewardship Forum which basically helps them with elections and helps with funds".

The beverage companies' lobbying power is compounded by their hefty advertising budgets.

Earlier this year, no commercial television station in Australia was prepared to take Greenpeace's money to run an ad (since viewed more than a 1.3 million times on YouTube) targeting Coke and in favour of container deposit recycling.

ABC's Media Watch labelled the commercial boycotting of the ad 'disturbing' and a 'restriction on free speech'.

What's emerged in response to the corporate heavy-handedness is a broad community alliance of surfers, scientists, runners, recycling campaigners and thousands of other Australians, who are challenging Coca-Cola and friends. Most recently Canterbury Girls High School stood up to be counted, banning Coca-Cola from their school canteen.

You only have to go down to the Cooks River in Sydney to see that doing nothing results in a big problem. … It is a disgrace. … We want to live in a place that is clean and where people care for their environment and take steps to protect it for future generations.

Every remaining state except Queensland is now considering introducing container deposit recycling – and the nation may yet get together on the issue. But the battle is far from won. The fate of our rivers and beaches, our parks and marine life, remains in the balance. Will the people prevail? Or do we actually live in a pop drink democracy, where the convenience of corporate giants comes first?

The governments of Australia must decide just whose side they're on.

Here in Sydney, I am hoping Barry O'Farrell will act, so that my daughter's next beachside question is more likely to be "why is the sea blue?", instead of "why is the rubbish there, Dad?".

David Ritter is the Chief Executive Officer of Greenpeace Australia Pacific and a Visiting Fellow to the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Australia. View his full profile here.